


Odds and Probablities

by Amoridere



Series: Through Thick and Thin [1]
Category: Kill la Kill
Genre: Cancer, Ill Girl, Mentions of Cancer, kind of sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-21 14:05:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6054400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amoridere/pseuds/Amoridere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She was frail as she looked and felt"</p><p>A Prequel to "Through Thick and Thin"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Odds and Probablities

My dad knows a lot about people getting sick but he didn't know about Ryuuko-chan's illness. He just knew she was sick was all and that, whatever she had, he couldn't fix or give her medicine for. None of us knew too much about her illness but we knew she needed some help, help that none us could give her.

I remember when I found her collapsed on the floor. She didn't seem to be feeling all that well and was very tired. Normally, Ryuuko-chan is energetic, being up before the sun is and going to sleep long after the moon wakes up, but, now she just seemed to sleep all day. Of course, Dad being, well, Dad decided to give her some medicine but that didn't work. He tried different ones but none them worked. "Perhaps, we should just wait it out and let Ryuuko have her rest." he said, shrugging. Some illness work better if someone gets some sleep but Ryuuko's fatigue didn't waiver or go away.

After some time, she still didn't get out of bed and was even more tired than before. Her tiredness at this point came with something that scared Mom. Ryuuko had barely touched her croquets and, instead, ate her soup. "Ryuuko, dear, where does your stomach hurt?" she asked her but she couldn't say. She just simply said that she wasn't feeling well was all. Dad checked her head to toe and he was startled, as he noticed something was a little up with her neck.

"Ryuuko, was your neck always lumpy?" he asked her, to which she told him, "No." He nodded his head and then asked her if they hurt to which she also said, "No, they don't hurt." His eyes were wide and he threw a blanket around her, before ushering her to the car. At first, we didn't know why he was but it dawned on us that he wanted very much to take Ryuuko to a hospital and he wasn't going to take an argument.

"What she has cannot be treated at home." he said, as we drove our way to the hospital. Being that we didn't know what she had, we asked him but he told us that he didn't know, however, he did say, "Besides the fatigue, she doesn't have any signs of infection, so her lymphnodes shouldn't even be swollen and, a lot of times, people's lymphnodes hurt when they swell."

We got her there by 10:00 p.m. and Dr. Fujimoto ran some tests and things on her, even taking her blood, the which I had to hold her hand for, asking that she stay overnight. The next morning, he called us all together and said, "Well, Mankanshoku-sama, the test results came back and I'm afraid Ryuuko-chan has Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma." We all looked at each other and Ryuuko was barely awake. Dad raised an eyebrow and asked, "What is 'Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma' and how do you treat it."

"Ah. Non-Hodgkin's disease is a cancer, which is to say, a disease that her immune system can't kill off by itself, however, her disease is cureable in its early stages."

"Okay, how do you treat it?"

"She will be treated with chemotherapy and, if need-be, she will treated with radiation. Fortunately, with her condition being in its early stages, she would likely have to be treated with just chemotherapy."

"What is 'chemotherapy'?"

"Chemotherapy is a medicine used to kill cancer cells and, sometimes, other diseases, however, as with all medicines, it comes with its side-effects, common ones being nausea, hair loss, and weight loss, and there is a chance it wouldn't cure her condition."

"What's her survival rate?"

"About 55-67% percent. While those are high chances, there are still chances her condition could take a turn for the worse."

When Ryuuko was fully awake, the doctor broke the news. She was calm and, unlike some of the other patients, she didn't cry, actually, she took the news pretty well and thanked the doctor for giving it to her straight, while he told her how brave she was. When we came in, she threw her arms around us and told us that she loved us. She knew her odds and probabilities, thus she wanted us to know that she loved us, should her illness take a dramatic turn for the worse.

"How're you gonna tell Sats?" I asked her, thinking about her sister. She explained that she would spend time with her during this period and that she would have the doctor tell her when she comes to visit. As she told me this, I noticed how frail she looked, especially with the IV drip in her arm. I recalled how earlier, as she hugged us, she even felt frail. As I sat next to her, I asked her, "Are you scared?" She blinked and looked to the side, saying, "Yes."

Typically, she would respond with a "Hell no!" or "No way!" and then laugh it off but she wasn't doing that. She was frail as she looked and felt and and she was as scared as she said she was but she was awfully calm about it. I guess she just didn't have the strength to scream or cry about it, however, she did have the strength to calculate her odds and probabilities, saying, "Doc says I'll get better and that my odds are like, real, real high, so, I'll get better."

"Do you think you'll be okay?" I asked her before going home. She barely put her hand on my shoulder and smiled a tired smile, saying, "Yes." I stayed with her until she fell asleep and I thought about how she looked like a baby, a really sick baby. The doctor said she had a high chance of surviving, however, she also had a chance of her illness killing her, leaving her to her odds and probabilities.

Even though she didn't say, we both knew it was important and better off if she stayed with and spent more time with Satsuki, especially since what she had would probably kill her. I got to spend a lot of time with her but Satsuki didn't. I could have only imagined how Sats would take the news. I hoped she would take it well, after all, her sister took it well.

When Sats came in, she hurried straight to her sister. I left them alone and would have Ryuuko tell me about her time with the sister she barely got to know. It seemed fitting, after all, those moments could very well be her last. If she was going to die, she wanted to leave Sats with some memories.


End file.
